Unholy alliances #2
 
It's not only in Rio state that the Workers Party (PT) and the neoliberal Liberal Front Party (PFL) are getting into bed.  In Codo, Maranhao, the two parties are joining the Brazilian Social Democrat Party (PSDB) in an alliance against the Green Party candidate, who has links to the former president, Jose Sarney (he a former sympathiser of the military regime).  The same set-up is in place in Altamira do Maranhão, also in the same state, and Medianeira in Parana.
 
According to the Folha de Sao Paulo, PT alliances need to be based on support for Lula's government and an 'ethical' code (whatever that may mean).  As a result a proposed PT-PFL alliance was scrapped in Cachoerinha in Rio Grande do Sul after sections of the local PT protested.  By contrast the president of the PT in Maranhao, claims that "Currently, in the interior... parties are labels.  They don't have an ideological profile like that in Brasilia."
 
Tell that to the party's founders, some of whom must be spinning in their grave.